“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan is still arguably the greatest basketball player in history (although there are some notable challengers in recent years – Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Steph Curry – but that’s an argument for another day). He had an amazing confidence and self belief. But you know what. He failed. And often. What made Jordan great was that even though he failed, and sometimes he failed in the big games on the pressure shot, he never stopped believing he could make the next shot.

Like Michael Jordan you will fail. You will not make all the goals, you will not make all the shots, but you need the self belief that you will move towards your goals – from possible, to probably to inevitable. That is how Jordan became Jordan – self belief to believe he would make every shot, even if he missed the last one.

When missing an important shot, Jordan didn’t suddenly decide that he wasn’t in the zone or he’d lost his edge. He said to himself, “give me the ball, I will make the next shot.” And he’d try again. He never lost his focus or his self belief. I’m sure he had moments of doubt. Everyone does, but Jordan never let that linger. He shook it off, reminded himself who he was and said, “I will make this shot!”

You need to think in the same way. You will fail. You will miss some of your goals. You will have bad days and you will screw up. That’s OK. Even Jordan did. That doesn’t define you and it’s not the end of the journey. When that happens you need to pick yourself up remind yourself who you are, what you are about and move onto the next shot.

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